1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composite-recording apparatus for recording information from different information sources, and includes an optical system for projecting an image of an original supported on a copy board onto a photosensitive medium thereby to form an electrostatic latent image thereon, reproducing means for reproducing electric information on the photosensitive medium as an electrostatic latent image through scanning operation, and developing means for visualizing the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive medium to be recorded.
In this specification, definition will be made of the meaning of the phrase "reproducing means" or "reproducing apparatus" or a like expression. With this term, it is intended to express an electric quantity-to-light converter such as an optical fiber tube (OFT), a thin window tube (TWT), a laser beam scanner, or like apparatus which serves to convert external or internal input information supplied as an off-line signal or on-line into a corresponding electrostatic image to be reproduced on a photosensitive medium through a scanning operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, in the field of image information processing techniques, a variety of copying apparatus for obtaining a record of the contents of an original to be copied are employed, while various facsimile printers are used for recording information transmitted from remote facsimile equipment. However, installations of separate, plural equipment for different functions involves a disadvantage from the economic viewpoint in respect of the expenditures involved as well as the available space to be occupied by the equipment. For these reasons, a multipurpose information recording apparatus is being developed by making use of a series of common processes carried out in succession to the formation of the latent image involved in both the copying apparatus and the facsimile printer. For example, a typical multi-recording or composite recording apparatus in disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 63340/1977 filed under the title "Composite Apparatus For Image Reproduction and Image Formation". The disclosed composite apparatus includes an optical system for projecting an image of an original resting on a copy board onto a photosensitive medium, and an optical fiber for reproducing the viedo signal supplied from an external information source on the photosensitive medium. The composite apparatus is capable of operating as a copying apparatus as well as an optical printer and is thus advantageous over the mere aggregation of a copying machine and an optical printer from the economic standpoint. However, the composite apparatus disclosed in the above patent application suffers from difficulties in that the optical system and the optical fiber tube have to be selectively positioned at the image projecting position in dependence on the copying and reproducing operations. For example, the composite apparatus can not accommodate any emergent or urgent recording request issued from the external information source, when the apparatus is being operated in the copying mode. Consequently, the advantage of the composite apparatus proposed in the laid-open application lies chiefly in respect of the economic point described above.